Peridot vs The Ruby Squad
by CondorRadcliff
Summary: When the Ruby Squad returns to the farm one night, Peridot - and only Peridot - is there to meet them. But she doesn't have her powers, oh no! ...Instead, she built herself some equipment to take them on herself! (What If, taking the place of "Too Short to Ride".)
1. Chapter 1

The Roaming Eye entered Earth's atmosphere slowly, carefully. It had done this before - same craft, same crew - and followed the same path down to the west coast of a particular land mass. New target, though. Its crew had been tricked into going on an unnecessary tour of the Solar System, and they wanted answers.

The sun had set some time ago in the region. It was a happy coincidence, providing convenient cover for what they wanted to do.

There was a field outside of the nearest Human population center - 'Beach City', according to intercepted communications - that was itself just outside of their target. There the Roaming Eye landed, gently, some distance away from a familiar red wooden structure. The hatch _hissed_ open and five small, red soldiers of varying angryness disembarked. Four of them quickly arranged themselves in a line before the fifth, standing at attention and ready for their orders.

"Okay Ruby Squad, listen up!" Ruby barked. "For the duration of this mission, I am in command!"

"Yes, Ruby!" the four other Rubies replied, saluting.

"Our mission: locate, neutralize, exfiltrate, and interrogate the Peridot assigned to the Operation Cluster Earth recon mission!"

"Yes, Ruby!"

"No dawdling, no distractions, no silly games, no interaction with locals, and _no! Baseball!_ Understood?"

"Yes, Ruby!"

"Questions?"

Ruby (second from the left) raised her hand. "Can I keep my Leader Visor?" she asked.

Ruby hadn't usurped power or committed mutiny; she'd asked for, and received, temporary command of the squad from its commanding officer. In practice, the only place it would matter would be in the after-action report - and frankly, Ruby was fine with Ruby getting all the credit, so long as the job got done right. "No, Ruby, you should keep your visor," she replied in utter seriousness, before smiling and then blinking (winking?). "After all, you need it to protect aaaaalllll _two_ of your eyes."

The Rubies all laughed. After such a rough mission, they needed the laugh.

Ruby was an Era 1 Gem, and something about how they were made, or maybe how long they'd been active, meant she had a sense of humor. And not just that; they had the best Ruby, a legend among Rubies! She'd been to Earth before, served in Pink Diamond's personal guard, never gave up, never faltered, never failed to fight, and a good soldier by any measure of the term.

Under normal circumstances, it would make sense for Ruby to be in charge of the Ruby Squad. She had the most combat experience after all, and the full respect of her comrades, but for one reason or another she wasn't given a commission. Normally this suited her fine, since that meant she didn't have to do boring things like write reports or not get into fights. So in her place, _Ruby_ had been commissioned and given a Leader Visor.

Everything had been going well so far. Ruby turned out to be a competent commanding officer for the Rubies, racking up successes and commendations until Yellow Diamond herself gave them a special mission! _Then_ things happened, not least of all their getting tricked repeatedly by Humans.

Ruby had been suspicious from the beginning about the 'humans' they'd encountered, but had kept her misgivings down to a series of low growls and let Ruby lead. The other Rubies had noticed… but didn't make the connection until after it was too late. So, feeling like they'd all learned a lesson, they'd unanimously put Ruby in charge.

"One more thing," Ruby added when they'd all stopped laughing. "For the duration of this mission, don't forget that we're using code names." It was something they'd discussed during their trip back. They _could_ just refer to each other by their cut, but Crystal Gems were a crafty bunch and there was no telling what they'd do with identifying information. And if they lost count of their number again, they could work out who an infiltrator was by asking for a code name they couldn't possibly have.

The other Rubies - leader DCC, cheerful NYV, hardheaded RME, and 'Newbie' LGY - saluted. "Yes, EBL!" they exclaimed, psyched up and ready to march after her into the Earth night.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Peridot had grown a little paranoid since the last time Homeworld agents had visited Earth, and one of the first things she'd done was install proper countermeasures. Equipment, home base fortifications, combat tactics - she wanted to be able to fight her _own_ battles, and protect her friends.

Era 2 Gem Warp Drives were standardized among the Gem star fleet, and she'd even worked on them as an engineer once. She knew they had a particular hardwired safety feature: to let other Gem ships in the vicinity know that they shouldn't occupy a point in space if they wished to continue existing as contiguous matter, they projected an 'exit mark' at their destination. The type, size, and flavor of the 'exit mark' was dictated by the size and importance of the ship projecting it, but that wasn't terribly important for her purposes. What _really_ mattered was that, even with primitive Earth materials and technology, it was possibly to scan for them.

This didn't mean she _felt_ ready to face the Rubies again, but she had no choice: her early detection equipment had picked up their specific warp 'exit mark'. They were probably aware they'd been tricked, and were likely _furious_. No quarter given, no mercy shown, no doubt.

 _Good_ , she thought, pumping herself up with false courage and bravado.

The Crystal Gems were out on a mission, and consequently Steven had been free to take Lapis to a show, so she was alone. It was a shame - they still thought of her as a Gem who couldn't fight, and she wanted to show the others what she was capable of! Innate powers and strength and weapons weren't everything, and as much as it still felt awkward to admit she wanted to prove Pearl right about what 'real strength' was.

She'd been given three minutes' warning, so she got hustling. With Lapis' help she'd prepared some equipment for this eventuality - boots, utility bandolier, poncho, mask, a pauldron. All of it was smoky gray for nighttime stealth, except for the pauldron which was brick red at Amethyst's suggestion. It was all ready to go, and Peridot _got_ , dashing out into the night like a bolt.

And then, just as predicted, the Roaming Eye had appeared.

Under a hollowed-out rock, she smiled nervously and flicked the safety off on her weapon. All she needed to do now was wait.


	2. Chapter 2

"Now, we're not gonna have a repeat of last time." EBL pressed a button on the side of their ship, opening a small panel. From it, five heavy blasters appeared in a shimmer, one for each Ruby. Quartz-class firepower: special ordinance for a heavy firefight. "Soldiers: take a weapon!"

The Rubies each picked up a blaster, admiring their unusually high finish and potential. (DCC, for her part, suddenly realized _just_ how little pull she actually had, compared to her subordinate. She had no idea the blasters had been loaded onto their ship until she was holding one, nor that EBL apparently had the connections to procure strategic offensive weapons. For the sake of her own pride, she hid her surprise and pretended to _ooh_ and _ahh_ along with the others.)

"You no doubt realize that this is some heavy ordinance!" EBL continued. "Now why would we need this? Because we're gonna split up and we wanna be ready for anything, that's why! DCC, you take RME. NYV, with me. LGY?"

"Yes, Ruby!" the newbie replied.

"...Try again."

"Yes... E… BL?"

"Better." EBL took a breath, and continued in a softer tone. "You're a pilot, not a groundpounder. Go back into the ship, stay there, and scan for the Peridot from above. (...Here, wait. Give RME your blaster; she can dual-wield.) Watch our backs, and see if you can save us the trouble of tracking the Peridot down."

"Yes, EBL!" LGY saluted and sheepishly marched backwards into the ship. She was a newbie and a little undercooked, a trusted comrade and, as evidenced by the ship's graceful liftoff, a decent pilot. But they all knew an Earth mission was too much, too soon for her, and keeping her out of harm's way was probably best for now.

They watched the Roaming Eye hum into the air and float off, its scanning beam activating. "Okay." EBL's voice was hard again, as she pointed to one side of the red barn. "DCC - head around to the left. We'll take the right. Sweep the area for the target. And from here on, keep your voices down. Understood?" She pressed the diamond mark on her uniform, activating their comm network.

"Yes, EBL," the other three replied, pressing their own diamonds.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The particular rock Peridot was hiding under, she'd modified because it was in a good location. From there she had a clear view of most of the farm, and also the Rubies.

So, what the _slag_ were they _doing_?

As preparation for her original mission, Peridot had been required to study basic squad tactics. In this sort of situation - a five-Gem squad in enemy territory vs. a known 'unknown number' of combatants - modern tactical doctrine dictated that they stay together at all times, if they had to leave their transport at all.

From her vantage point, she could see that they'd split up into smaller groups. Why, though? Even with those heavy blasters they were carrying, it cut their combat effectiveness. They _knew_ they might be outnumbered, and their last time on Earth had _started_ with them getting slapped into the ground.

"... _aw_ _ **stars**_ ," she muttered. She'd heard the expression 'like a ton of bricks' from Steven, to describe an enormous mental shock or surprise, and this… felt like exactly the right sort of situation to use it. Most likely, the Rubies had split up because they were _confident_ now. They had a tactician among them. Probably that one monoeye Ruby, given how she'd been acting during the baseball game.

It looked like they were searching the farm grounds for her, before entering the barn itself from-

-the Roaming Eye's scanning beam passed over her rock, prompting her to stay still and hold her breath for a moment-

-from both ends. A pincer formation. They'd seen her leave the barn last time, and now assumed she would be there. ( _Foolish!_ she thought. _That only works if Lapis isn't here to slap the saturation out of them. Well, they might not have properly ID'd Lapis last time - she covered her gem with a 'shirt' during the game - but it still means they just got lucky_...)

They were moving quickly enough to be out of sight soon, and that meant it was time to act. She crawled out from under her rock and, after checking the sky for the Roaming Eye, put on her mask. It had been a sport faceguard of some sort before she'd modified it into something called a ' _happuri_ ', that she'd seen in an old samurai movie.

Peridot had realized, during what little training she did, that her voluminous, _highly_ visible yellow hair was something of a liability; she'd fashioned the mask to mitigate this. It had sides and a top that slid into place around her head, pressing her hair down during use. Its one failing, Lapis had pointed out, was that it essentially gave her _Pearl's_ hairdo - but that wasn't something she could complain about given how effectively it reduced her volumetric cross-section.

Now, she only had sensor scanning to worry about...

...unless she took care of their ship. _Where a path closes, an opportunity opens_ , she thought.

The Roaming Eye was hovering slowly over the farm grounds, probably carefully scanning for her. Nowhere near the two Ruby teams on the ground. High up enough to make a successful intrusion difficult.

In her spare time, Peridot watched Earth fiction programs and built useful things. She'd watched through "Strong Force Forest" a while back, and liked the parts where the character Belma used her 'grappling hook'. It was a concept that was A) unworkable in real life at the depicted size, and yet B) vastly improvable with Gem technology.

So she'd taken the limb enhancer foot Steven had returned to her so long ago, and attached a rope to it. Voila: a 'grappling hook'. Then she'd made some necessary improvements, and now it was practical.

 _Very_ practical.

Once she'd crept close enough, she unhitched the grappling unit from her bandolier with her left hand, and reached to her side with her right. Lapis had 'done her a solid' and recovered some of her limb enhancer parts from the bottom of the ocean, which she'd used to build a few Peri-Devices. Using bits of an Arm and a Finger, she'd completed the PD-C05(p) ' _Negotiator_ ', what the Humans might call a blaster pistol.

She attached the grappling unit to it, aimed, and...

 _pttt!_

The miniaturized gravity control system in the grappling unit recalibrated just before impact, causing it to suddenly deaccelerate until it matched velocity with the Roaming Eye. Then it reasserted its mastery over gravity and attached itself to the hull, immovable to anything less than tremendous force.

She gripped the pistol tightly and pressed a button on the side. The wire began to spool, pulling the Negotiator and her with it up to the Roaming Eye. In moments, she was hanging onto the underside of the craft. When she was satisfied that she hadn't been noticed, she began scrambling over to the hatch and opened it, detaching the grappling unit as she slipped in

The ship was a standard Era 2 model, bordering on outdated, with no extra frills or gimmicks. There were five seats, arranged around the edge in a half-circle far bigger than the ship's exterior could reasonably fit by using dimensional folding. The only customization was probably the color scheme, appropriately set to red-on-yellow (for Rubies under Yellow Diamond).

Four of the seats were visibly empty; the fifth, at the front, had a small tuft of squareish hair poking out from the top. "EBL? Is that you?" a Ruby asked from the pilot's seat. "Did you find the Peridot alrea-"

 _pewpewpewpewpewpew_ _ **POOF**_

Not exactly a Gem Destabilizer, but good enough to call a successful live test. She quickly holstered the Negotiator and rushed to the now-empty pilot's seat. Before it could start wobbling off-course she set the Roaming Eye for a quick landing.

When the ship was safely on the ground, out of sight from the barn, she looked over the gem with a Kindergartener's practiced eye. An Era 2, and not a particularly powerful one at that: six shots had been enough to fully dematerialize her, without risk of damage to the ship or its controls.

She bubbled the Ruby and, not sure if the dimensional folding would cause problems, took it outside to send it home. Home was, of course, the barn.

...which was currently surrounded by Rubies.

" _Aw,_ _ **stars**_ ," she said to herself. She quickly copied the ship's comm channel frequency into her mask's and began running back towards the barn.


	3. Chapter 3

EBL suddenly stopped mid-stride and raised a fist. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

NYV listened intently for a moment. "No, it's quiet and peaceful tonight," she replied.

" _We can't hear the ship!_ " EBL hissed. She looked around, trying to find it in the nearby skies. "That's not good."

"Well, it's a quiet ship though, isn't it?" she shrugged with a smile. It was always hard to tell if she understood how dire a situation was or wasn't.

EBL tapped the diamond on her uniform. "LGY, respond."

Silence.

"LGY, respond! Are you still piloting the ship?"

More silence.

EBL grumbled, and tapped the diamond again. "Squad, listen up: LGY has been dematerialized and our ship is disabled or hostile. Mission is now 'hot' - repeat, mission is now 'hot'. If you see anything move: shoot first, question later."

"Yes, EBL!" three voices replied, and quickly followed by RME: "Hey- HEY! I SEE SOMETHING."

 _PSSEE'PSSEE'PSSEE_... Heavy blaster shots rang out from nearby and ceased as quickly as they'd begun.

"RME! Have you found the target?" EBL demanded through the firing in her receiver, but got no reply. "RME! ...DCC, report!"

"E-EBL!" DCC's voice was agitated. "Help! We're under att- RME? RME!"

"We're on our way!" EBL barked, motioning to NYV to follow as she started running. "Watch your step and find a secure position!" The two of them ran into a cloud of dust that hadn't been there a few moments ago, towards DCC.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

That one had been too close, Peridot thought, as she sent the second bubbled Ruby back to the barn. It was too early to use the smoke dispensers, too early to fire up the many tricks and traps she'd hidden. They had a good field commander, clearly not either of the two she'd poofed so far. And if she was smart enough to start looking for traps - or worse, avoid them - things would end very, very quickly.

 _This_ Ruby, 'RME', had been quick on the trigger and started firing when a thrown rock hit the ground. But she'd also been foolish, blindly chasing after a distraction into a cloud of smoke, not looking where she was stepping, and falling into a pit unhelpfully lined with pointy sticks. Her partner had been less hasty, and from where Peridot could see, was also the leader during their first visit to Earth.

Steven had called that one, 'DCC', 'Doc'. And sometimes she wondered if the Crystal Gems would have called her that too, if they hadn't started calling her 'Peridot'.

She looked at the notes she'd scribbled onto her arm while listening in on the Rubies' comm channel. (It was an Earth custom to keep track of enemy names that way in this sort of situation, according to a 'holiday movie' Amethyst had suggested.) 'LGY' was the one in the ship, 'RME' was the one she'd just destabilized, 'DCC' was wearing the Leader Visor, and 'EBL' was their leader for now.

There was something unusual about that. Those identifiers weren't cuts; they had to be code names. Era 2 doctrine had standardized the practice of same-typed gems referring to each other by _cut_ amongst themselves, and gem type to unknown outsiders. Since the Rubies had all introduced themselves as 'Ruby' for the baseball game, _that_ custom hadn't changed since her defection.

No, code names had been discontinued after Era 1. They were a useful means of identifying allies in an unknown situation but, the thinking went, promoted an unhealthy individualism counter-productive for group cohesion. That sort of duplicity wouldn't naturally occur to an Era 2 Gem...

And all that together pointed to an Era 1 Ruby in that squad: 'EBL', their leader. They were being led by a Gem who wasn't concerned with proper procedure and was willing to buck the rules on their own initiative. EBL could _think_ for herself - and that being the case, it had truly been a blunder to reveal the traps so early. She would have smacked herself in the face from the realization...

...if she hadn't been hiding under another rock, no more than 10 feet from where the three remaining Rubies were regrouping and securing their surroundings.


	4. Chapter 4

"We're done for, _Ru_ \- I-I mean, _EBL_! The game's up." A growing horror was gnawing at DCC, and it was pushing her from agitation into fear. She'd seen RME run into a cloud of smoke, firing a heavy blaster on semi-auto and then... She heard a Gem's destabilization. And now RME wasn't responding. "This can't be a Gem - the _planet_! It must've swallo- _ **HUU**_!"

EBL punched her superior officer in the torso, knocking the air out of her. DCC crumpled down to the ground, silent. "That's enough, soldier," she said calmly. "You're a Ruby; act like it. Now get up, pick up your blaster, and go shoot the _clod_ that got your buddy."

DCC stood up, hands balled into fists, head turned down slightly. She was trying not to cry in embarrassment, and failing only slightly. "E-EBL, I'm..."

"Save it." EBL put a hand on DCC's shoulder, then pulled her in for a gripping hug. "Always remember you're a Ruby, and that it means your courage is limitless."

"Aww, EBL..." NYV said, touched by emotions and tearing up a little herself. (The twin heavy blasters she was now holding, hers and EBL's, made it impossible to wipe her eyes.)

"We're here to fight, because we're _soldiers_!" EBL pulled away from her, and stood at attention. "Soldier! Prepare yourself for battle!"

"Yes, EBL!" DCC responded, her voice full of confidence again.

( _clunk "_ _ **ow**_ _-slag!"_ ) Sound cut through the night and smoke: a Gem stubbing her toe on a piece of metal followed by a Peridot's voice swearing at her own pain. And to DCC, it was a chance at redemption.

"YOU'RE MINE, CLOD! FOR RME! FOR LGY!" DCC cried as she ran into a cloud of smoke towards the noise. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

"Wait! No! Come back! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEA-" EBL was cut off by the gentle _poof_ of a Ruby being dematerialized, some distance away. "...meant by 'courage'."

"Soooo... 'courage', not 'foolhardiness?" NYV added innocently, her arms crossed behind her.

"Yep!" EBL's palm was now fully planted on her face.

"Oh! Well, I'm glad that's all cleared up then."

EBL's other palm dropped her heavy blaster with a _clunk_ so as to briefly make a strangling gesture, then also planted itself on her face. And if she could grow more hands, she would have, for the sole purpose of further face-palming. In that moment she envied fusions who had the increased number of limbs to face-palm in the way she currently wanted to. But for now, she compensated for a lack of extra limbs by pushing her palms into her face with all the force she could muster. " **N** - **Y** - **V**?" she said finally, through grit teeth and two palms.

"Yes, EBL?"

"How long have we been working together?" EBL asked. It was a question as far as diction went, but voiced like an angry threat to burn a continent to ashes.

"Hmmm." NYV thought for a few seconds. "Since the start of... Era 2?"

EBL lowered her hands and glared at NYV, attempting to focus her rage into eye-lasers. "So, I KNOW you're smarter than you let on. Do something smart. _Do_. _You_. _Understand_?"

"Ohhh. I think I do," NYV said mischievously. She daintily put the blasters she'd been holding onto the ground, and cheerfully skipped off into the smoke.

EBL waited a moment, then looked around. Her expression was back to normal now, as serene as an erupting volcano. "Peridot? I know you can hear me," she said calmly. "You're probably close enough to hear me too. Come on out. Come on out and face me. One on one."

There was a rustling noise behind her. She slowly turned to look.

A Peridot, the one they'd been looking for, slowly stepped forward out of the smoke. No taller or stronger than any Ruby, still wore a Leader Visor despite defecting. Her body and arms, she covered with a triangular gray appearance modifier, possibly made of organic material. To this she'd added a mask or helmet of some sort (to pin down her hair?), a pair of boots, and a red pauldron over her right shoulder. She held a small, one-handed blaster, ready to open fire on an unalert soldier.

On their first visit to Earth, this Peridot had let the rest of her team fight them. Now she presented herself as a Gem who had long since abandoned her Homeworld and race, embracing the local culture of a forbidden backwater. What honor or pride she'd had, or respect for what Peridots ought to be, was gone. Now there was the survival instinct of organic life, born of weakness.

And yet, she'd dematerialized three Rubies in the space of _minutes_. A worthy adversary.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Crystal Gems Detached Operations: _Peridot_ ," she said as cooly as she could. "And you're EBL, the old soldier, the legend. I've read your file. Surprised to see you back on Earth."

Most of that was an embellishment, a mind game, a show of confidence to knock EBL off-balance, who had to be at _least_ as strong as the Ruby she'd come to know. Being careful wasn't enough around her; no, this was a Gem she couldn't turn her back or take her eyes off of, and not for one second lower her weapon.

"You've dematerialized three of my comrades, Peridot. I'm impressed," EBL said. Her tone was incongruously congenial. "How did you do it?"

"Close range blaster for the rookie, traps for the others. Why do you ask?"

"Need something for the report, that's all." EBL shrugged. Her body language and smile indicated relaxation, but her eye stayed open and angry. "And your weapon?"

Peridot sniffed. "PD-C05(p): the 'Negotiator'." She twirled it once, aimed it back at EBL, and then continued to twirl it and aim for random intervals as she continued her forced bravado, still paraphrasing a game she'd watched Steven play. "Finest weapon I've ever made. Six shots... is more than enough to dematerialize any Gem that moves."

"Salvaged from limb enhancers, it looks like. That means it won't work on an Era 1 Gem like me. But I have a better idea." EBL slowly moved her right hand to her gem-eye, and pulled out a flat-pointed knife, presumably her personal weapon. "How about we play one of those silly games they like on this planet, hand to hand? Winner _doesn't_ get shattered."

The knife was more a tool than a weapon, made for prying and slashing. If it had been another Peridot, she was sure she could have disarmed her - but she couldn't possibly overpower a Ruby. The bet here was that brute strength would win out over quick shooting, that Peridot couldn't fire enough times before Ruby bisected her or pried out her gem.

...But, she'd prepared for this sort of eventuality as well. "Are you sure? I've already won three times in a row." Peridot stopped twirling the Negotiator, and tilted the barrel down from the grip 45 degrees with her free hand. A metallic baton extended up from the grip, leaving her with a melee weapon. "PD-C05( _b_ ). Haven't used it yet, tonight."

EBL gently kicked her heavy blaster off to the side, then assumed a fighting stance, brandishing her knife with familiarity. "Fine by me. You've caused us enough trouble. I'm just glad I get to do the finishing... STRIIIIIIKE!" Her expression changed in an instant and she leapt forward, spinning into a slash mid-air.

The spin made it hard to tell what exactly she was doing, and added extra force to any blow she wanted to land. It was fast strength, meant to break through counters or parries with kinetic energy alone, but came at the cost of balance and stance (from being off the ground).

If she had put thought into it, EBL was essentially betting that the maneuver would end with her landing in a position she could recover from. If Peridot blocked or attempted to counterattack physically, that _would_ happen, and then the stronger one would win. If Peridot tried to blast her into poofiness, it wouldn't work _and_ she'd still connect at full force, to the same end. If Peridot dodged, EBL would be forcing her into only using reactive moves and would eventually win.

But if Peridot barely moved, and instead attacked EBL's _balance_...

Peridot spun into a crouch and swung the baton _hard_ at EBL's legs, which were still extended in anticipation of landing. She connected with a _crakk_ like it was a game-winning grand slam, altering EBL's mid-air position from 'mostly upright' to 'parallel with the ground', and changing the maneuver's ending from 'recoverable' to 'kissing the dirt'.

 _splat_

And that was Peridot's opportunity. She continued her own spin and stabbed the baton into the space behind her...

 _stukk_

There were a few moments of silence. " **HH** gh-! ...not bad, Peridot," EBL gasped, before _POOF_ ing into a small cloud of red light.

"Darn right," Peridot said. She quickly bubbled and sent the gem, then retracted the baton and twirled the Negotiator into its holster.

Something felt strange. EBL was an Era 1 Ruby, tough and stubborn, who appeared to have enough pride in her identity to use it as motivation. And yet, she'd gone... relatively quietly. She accepted it. Peridot had never heard of a soldier-class Gem being that willing to give up - they fought to the bitter end. Either EBL was just that much of an individual, or...

 _bwee_ _ **EE**_

The 'Diplomat' deployed automatically from her pauldron, forming a ray shield behind her.

 _PSSEE_

Something smashed into the Diplomat's ray shield; enough of it pierced through to Peridot, dazing and knocking her back before she knew what was going on.

"Well, that's a _surprise_ ," NYV said kindly, stepping out from her silhouette. "Really didn't think you'd survive that. I'm a pretty good shot, too."

The PD-C07 'Diplomat' was a defensive weapon built into her paldron - extra insurance for when outside forces turned a Peri-plan into a Peri-fail. It consisted of four limb enhancer 'fingers', and in this case had automatically deployed as the vertices of a regular tetrahedron-shaped ray barrier. _Needs some work, clearly_ , Peridot thought as she picked herself up off the ground and reached for her pistol.

"Ah, ah." NYV shook her head and tapped the side of her heavy blaster.

That left… no good options. The Diplomat couldn't redeploy so quickly after 'breaking', since it relied on an energy charge. It had been a one-on-five battle, and for a non-com she'd held up fairly well. She sighed and raised her hands. "I take it you're NYV, then. Can I ask you something? Was EBL just buying time?"

"Like you're trying to do now, yeah." NYV shrugged. "Well, I guess I'd do it _too_ ," she added after a reflective moment.

It was that smile that bugged her most, Peridot decided, more so than how she had one hand literally behind her back. It wasn't smug or condescending in any way, just... omniscient. Like she knew exactly how things were going to go, and thus had no reason to feel anything but amusement at the world. "So what happens now? You destabilize me, take me prisoner?"

"Me? Noooo." NYV reached behind her and produced four Rubies. " _We_. I think they'll all want a piece of you in a moment. And, they'd probably like it better if you were running."

Peridot could handle a single Ruby if she had the advantage of surprise, and had in fact been advised to fight this way. But in the time it would take her to beat NYV, the other four would reform, and then they'd have a clear advantage. So instead she grumbled and ran off into the smoke, to wait for that advantage...


	5. Chapter 5

"Are we all here?" EBL asked, fully reformed.

"Yes, EBL!" the four Rubies responded.

"And do we all have our custom blasters?" She produced her own blaster, essentially a small artillery piece, to demonstrate.

"Yes, EBL!" the four responded, holding up their own slightly smaller blasters.

"Then... let's COMBINE them!" She flicked a switch on the side. Four mounts opened up around the barrel, and the others each attached their blaster to a mount.

Then they got into position. As an Era 1 weapon the Rolling Blaster was more powerful than their modern Heavy Blasters, but A) heavy, B) awkward to use, and C) had considerable kickback. Using it _required_ four Gems just to hold it in place with a fifth doing the aiming, Gem Fusions or not. LGY and RME held the front end from the sides, NYV and DCC held the back end, and EBL took the trigger and targeting scope. "ROLLING BLASTER!" the five of them shouted together, their verbal command releasing the primary safety.

The Rolling Blaster had been designed with visual targeting in mind, but had a Red Eye-class scanner unit for poor visibility situations; it popped out in front of NYV, who began searching for the Peridot. "Target found!" she said joyfully.

The firing data transferred to the targeting scope, and EBL moved the cannon into position. She pressed in thumb safety, and the barrels began spinning. "ROLLING...!"

After a moment, the cannon had spun up to firing speed. "BLASTERRRRR!" they shouted, holding it in place while EBL pulled the trigger.

Five beams of different colors fired out, one from each blaster muzzle. They cascaded into a single point and formed into a ball of light - then exploded at a safe distance.

 _ **pheeeeee-BWWOOOOM**_

(A safe distance for _them_. The idea was for the explosion to happen at a decidedly _un_ safe distance for the Peridot.)

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

 _NYV's clever but not tactical_ , Peridot thought. She hadn't defected that long ago, and was still aware of the special weapons occasionally given out to personally selected agents of the Diamonds. All five of them wanting a piece of her meant they were either going to hunt her down and torture her equally - and that had been working _so well_ so far for them - or deploy a combining weapon.

Either way, she'd prepared sensor decoys, and with six of them...

 _ **pheeeeee-BWWOOOOM**_

... _five_ of them, at intervals a half-mile radius from the farm, she could lead them on. Of course, since she wasn't okay with them possibly shooting through the farm (to hit the three on the other side), that effectively meant she only had two decoys left to activate.

From where she was she could hear the Rubies cheering. They'd hit their target - gotten confirmation of it and everything from their scanner. All they thought they needed to do now was go out and recover a gem - or its shards.

"Two decoys left, smoke screen's dissipating…" she mumbled to herself. They'd find her eventually, no matter how far she ran or how well she stacked the deck against them. She had a (literal) handful of Era 2 tech, only powerful enough for one-hit strikes. That 'robot' she built, the Peribot, wasn't strong enough to fight off all five of them at once - separately _or_ fused. And they'd wised up! They put their experienced veteran in charge, and were deploying a Rolling Blaster against a single _Peridot_.

That was the overkill she had to overcome. It was _her_ fight. Their mission, for now, seemed to focus on her. That was no guarantee that, after they finished with _her_ , they wouldn't move on to Steven, or Lapis, or Amethyst, or the others...

"No," she said to herself. "This _has_ to end here."


	6. Chapter 6

"We got her, we got her!" LGY exclaimed.

"Yeah! Now we just have to go pick up the shards-" DCC began.

"No, wait," NYV said. "EBL, look."

EBL looked through the scope again. Another target had shown up, about 140 degrees to their right... and it was moving. Coming at them, in fact, and at high speed! "Second shot! Get ready! ROLLING...!"

"BLASTERRRRR!"

 _ **pheeeeee-BWWOOOOM**_... _ckckck_

The explosion was the same, but it was followed by an odd after-sound - like something scattering onto the ground. And then, a frame came speeding into view out of the smoke, carried on a little cart propelled by a... chemical rocket?

RME stuck her foot out into its path. The cart ran into it, tumbled through the air a couple of times, then crashed onto its side and skidded to a halt. The frame was made of metal, and formed the rough outline of a standard Peridot; at its base, on the cart, was a small green crystalline box lit up from inside with blinking lights.

"...a decoy," EBL said, in the flat tone of someone no longer surprised by anything. "The Peridot prepared sensor decoys."

"I swear, she gonna turn out to have a giant slaggin' _robonoid_..." DCC grumbled.

"We have a cannon! Bring! It! _Ooooooon!_ " RME announced.

The situation was getting worse, EBL realized. Except for LGY, they'd all been on grab-and-go missions before, and this was the first time a Gem had not only been expecting them but also prepared with adequate countermeasures. It was… no, it was a waste to just take this one back to Homeworld. She caught herself chuckling under her breath at the oddity of it all - how long ago was it, the last time she'd been out on a mission this challenging? "This is gonna be a _shine_ of a report…" she said to herself. "One for the textbooks-"

"EBL? Another one incoming," NYV said.

She looked down at the scope again, her reverie broken. It was coming at them, from a different angle this time, but at the same speed as the last one. "Okay, we'll-"

"And a second one," NYV added.

It wasn't showing up on her scope. "Moving?"

"Stationary."

Two targets, and no way to figure out which one was real before it was too late.

The Rubies looked to EBL, each one of them in a state of growing anxiousness and looking for reassurance. Under her excitement for a mission worth her mettle she had doubts, doubts that were beginning to boil up to the surface. The Peridot's tactics had been strike-and-fade, never getting into a strength-vs-strength situation and even rigging the terrain in her favor. They'd deployed obscenely heavy armaments against her, and she was _still_ unnerving them: they all knew now that she could beat them one-on-one on her own terms, and if she'd prepared sensor decoys it meant she had a plan to use them effectively against them.

But there had to be _something_ , _some_ advantage they had. A weakness? No - Peridots were weakness walking on two legs compared to Rubies, and she'd been winning. How, though? Every time she fought them, she avoided extended combat…

And then it started to dawn on her: she had to start thinking like her opponent.

The Peridot had been compensating for her lack of strength by striking where _they_ were weakest, focusing maximum effort on a pinpoint. She'd disabled their Roaming Eye by attacking the distracted pilot, provoked the trigger-happy RME into a trap, and let _her_ eat dirt before striking from behind.

But now there were five of them, and they had the _Rolling Blaster_. If she had some sort of equivalent weapon, or a long-range option - _no_ , she didn't. She would have deployed it by now, or even just shot the Roaming Eye down during their approach. It was too much power to overcome with trickery, which left only one option: a frontal attack, obfuscated with decoys.

"...the moving one!" EBL barked, every bit the hardened veteran her squad looked up to. "ROLLING...!"

Their confidence restored, the Ruby Squad turned, aimed, and fired as one - at the moving signal. "BLASTERRRRR!"

 _ **pheeeeee-BWWOOOOM**_

Whatever they hit, it wasn't a decoy...

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

At just the right moment, Peridot jumped as high as the boots would let her.

The Rolling Buster beam passed harmlessly beneath her, and exploded somewhere in the smoke behind her.

It had been a risky tactic, provoking what turned out to be artillery blaster shots to learn what kind of weapon they were using - but it had paid off. The Rubies had all but spelled out their weapon's characteristics and shortcomings to her with the previous firings: charging time, termination distance, beam vector relative to the ground.

Most importantly, that they could only fire it after _shouting out the weapon's name_.

She drew the Negotiator and charged a full-power shot. And as she arced over the Rubies, she fired down at them.

One shot: _PEW_

One hit: _GSSHH_

One disabled cannon: _VVVVVvvvvvwo'wo'wo'wo'wo'wooo...oo_

She could hear the Rubies panicking when she landed. They weren't far off, but between the beams they'd been firing, the explosion of their cannon and the smoke that was still floating around - they couldn't see her, even if they could hear her.

But stealth and sneakery were no longer realistic options; with their cannon blown up, the Ruby Squad knew she was coming.

There was a maneuver she'd been practicing, an all-or-nothing attack that seemed likely to catch them off guard in their confusion. First she activated the Diplomat, but this time had it form into more of an open claw shape ahead of her. And then she deployed the 'spurs' in her boots again, wheels that popped out and spun into the ground, dragging her along at decent speed... but this time, she activated the _boosters_.

 _This time_ , they could hear her coming. But it wouldn't help them.

She charged at where she had heard EBL, leading with the Diplomat's claw, cutting through the smoke, until!

 _WHAM_

The Ruby only had a moment to react, but she couldn't - instead looking _very_ surprised at what had just come out of the smoke. Peridot plowed into her with all the force of a ('smol') freight train, knocking the air out of her and dragging her away from the others.

When they were just out of sight, she made a high-G 180-degree turn, fast enough to keep EBL pinned against the energy claw through acceleration and centripetal forces alone. She charged at the other Rubies again, this time ( _WHA-WHAM_ ) ramming into NYV and DCC, pinning them _to EBL_ with every-increasing speed.

Again she spun back, and again she rammed into some Rubies ( _WH-WHAM)_. By this point she was moving too fast to identify them individually as she hit them or even see where she was going, but that was where being a Peridot came in handy.

There was no need for her to see: _she'd calculated where everything and everyone would be after the explosion._ All five of the Rubies, all of the Rolling Blaster debris, various rocks and changes in ground angle - _everything_.

Though she could feel the approximate weight of the others on the claw, she could only see EBL immediately in front of her, dazed and unable to get free. And she would, with enough time, since this assault/combat maneuver wasn't actually meant to hold them.

The boosters on Peridot's boots (PD-C09 'Gliss/Gallop') continued to accelerate, driving her away from the barn at ever-increasing speeds away from the barn, the five Rubies caught in front of her like bugs in a truck grill...

...But more accurately, they were like a _car bumper_ , the kind meant to crumple in a high-speed collision against, say, a giant rock in the field somewhere?

 _ **KKROOOM**_


	7. Chapter 7

Too late, in the moment of impact, EBL realized what was happening. The bet had never been on a Peridot being tougher than a Ruby - and they weren't - but on using Rubies as _padding_. They couldn't turn their heads to see what was about to happen, they couldn't brace, they couldn't put up a fight! The element of surprise had been part of the maneuver all along, and so long as the Peridot knew where she was going…

It was something an Era 1 Gem would never need to come up with, and something an Era 2 Gem would absolutely have to. EBL, with all her combat experience, never saw it coming. Through diluted consciousness EBL felt a sense of ... _satisfaction_?

 _Why?_ she wondered.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Even though she knew what to expect, Peridot felt her nonexistent solid-light internal organs _rattle_ at the moment of impact.

Then she saw stars. Pretty, twinkling stars. " _Oooohhhhhh_ _ **stars**_ ," she thought.

She had a pretty good idea of how resilient she was, and also how tough Rubies were, but the maneuver had answered a risky question: would a Straight Flush of Rubies be enough to cushion _her_ impact?

Short answer: Yes. (Long answer: 'Brain Not Working, Try Again Later'.)

Peridot had regained consciousness - and not much else. This appeared to still be more than what the Rubies had, from what she could see through hazy vision. But, by the look of it, the maneuver had succeeded: the six of them were all in a straight line.

Bit by bit, she forced her arm over to the Negotiator in its holster, preparing for her last move. Her lifeless hand and fingers were unwillingly dragged back into service and made to grip, then lift, then aim. "Final Crash," she mumbled.

"FINAL-CRASH," it responded. The Diplomat's vertices, unaffected by the severe G-forces, instantly whipped into a straight, glowing line extending from the pistol's muzzle.

Gathering all the strength she had left, she pulled the trigger.

 _ **ZZZZzznnNN**_

The green rods, originally Limb Enhancer fingers that Lapis had been able to find, burst out and tunnelled through the Rubies. In a blink they had embedded themselves inside the Rubies, one by one, like lances in dragons - dematerializing their physical forms one by one.

 _poof_

 _poof_

 _poof_

 _poof_

And then, only EBL remained, slumped on the ground with a glowing green rod still piercing her upper abdomen. "...rematch," she groaned, head tilted up slightly.

Peridot slumped down onto a knee. "...someday," she replied. "Maybe."

"Daytime. No tricks - _ergh_ \- no backup. Just... just you, and me."

What little strength she clearly had left, the Ruby had decided to devote to a conversation. Not materialize her knife, not curse her existence - _words_. It was, Peridot thought, something from an older time. "I heard... what you said... to DCC, was it? 'Lim- _haah_ \- limitless courage..."

"So... you were... listening…?"

"I don't know... what Peridots have..." She took a deep breath, and forced her tongue to work. "But you saw it. Here. Tonight."

EBL began to chuckle. Her grimace folded up into a smile, and with pained effort she reached out with a weak hand - pointing at Peridot's face before resting it on her shoulder. "Always remember that, soldier," she whispered.

 _POOF_

The smoke gradually dissipated, revealing a clear night as Peridot collapsed down onto her back. She raised her free hand up in a fist - defiant, proud the moon could see her victorious.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Perry~"

She heard a voice.

"Perry-Dee~"

That voice again.

"Aw, Peridot's sleeping. Don't wake her up..."

A different voice. Two voices. Familiar ones.

"Well she fell asleep in her clothes. C'mon, Perry, it's morning already! Wake up, ya towhead!"

Friends.

She opened her eyes.

"Hey Peridot," Steven said. "I didn't want to wake you - I thought you said you never sleep?"

"Nah," Lapis said, "she sleeps more than I do."

Peridot pushed herself up and looked around. They were inside the barn, right in the middle of it - and above her were five freshly bubbled Gems, her bubbles. She remembered pulling together enough energy to bubble/send them, but not dragging herself back into the barn.

Flopped onto the ground next to her friends, she basically had no powers whatsoever. She shouldn't have been able to win. But she'd needed to, and in response she'd drawn something out from herself. Whatever it was - Genius? Potential? Abnormal Survivability? - the proof was in the bubbles along the roof beams.

Her body felt heavy. The previous night felt like a dream and sleep a delicious parfait. But Lapis was right: she had fallen asleep in her 'clothes', and at the very least she needed to change. Before that, though, she pointed up and smiled. "Hey, uh... Remember those Rubies from before?"

Though, as they looked up, she felt like she'd already changed.


End file.
